For Ivy admission, athletes face a different standard
The Academic Index keeps bar high
Jason Harris
Issue date: 2/29/08 Section: Sports
The Office of Admission is busy these days, processing applications and selecting the best students for the class of 2012. The office is also sorting through the files of prospective varsity athletes, but for them, the office must consider one more thing.
The Academic Index system governs Ivy League institutions when it comes to accepting recruited athletes. The AI is a number assigned to each student in the eight-school athletics conference, whether he or she is an athlete or not, based on a formula that factors in standardized test scores and high school class rank or grade-point average. The standard is higher than normal NCAA Division I eligibility requirements.
Every Ivy League school has an average AI for its student body. For varsity athletes, that average must remain within one standard deviation of each school's overall average.
In addition, each athlete must have a minimum AI to be admitted to an Ivy League school. But athletes below the minimum AI could be admitted if his or her AI is below this floor for a non-athletic reason.
The system is unique to the Ivy League, which distinguishes itself from other Division I schools because it does not offer athletic scholarships. It was first implemented in 1985 because of changes in admissions. Before 1985, there were no regulations governing recruiting of high school athletes.
"In the 60s, 70s and early 80s the Ivy League had gone through a lot of changes in admissions," said Jeff Orleans, the outgoing executive director of the Council of Ivy Group Presidents. "We started admitting women, stopped being exclusively white, had more public school graduates and became need blind."
The AI was devised and implemented by the Ivy presidents as a "basic, common way of approaching recruiting student-athletes" and a way of providing a "common vocabulary," Orleans said.
Furthermore, the AI attempts to ensure that recruited athletes are up to Ivy League academic snuff.
"My sense was that it was an attempt to level the recruiting playing field so schools were recruiting students that were more representative academically of the student population," said Dean of Admission Jim Miller '73.
The Academic Index system governs Ivy League institutions when it comes to accepting recruited athletes. The AI is a number assigned to each student in the eight-school athletics conference, whether he or she is an athlete or not, based on a formula that factors in standardized test scores and high school class rank or grade-point average. The standard is higher than normal NCAA Division I eligibility requirements.
Every Ivy League school has an average AI for its student body. For varsity athletes, that average must remain within one standard deviation of each school's overall average.
In addition, each athlete must have a minimum AI to be admitted to an Ivy League school. But athletes below the minimum AI could be admitted if his or her AI is below this floor for a non-athletic reason.
The system is unique to the Ivy League, which distinguishes itself from other Division I schools because it does not offer athletic scholarships. It was first implemented in 1985 because of changes in admissions. Before 1985, there were no regulations governing recruiting of high school athletes.
"In the 60s, 70s and early 80s the Ivy League had gone through a lot of changes in admissions," said Jeff Orleans, the outgoing executive director of the Council of Ivy Group Presidents. "We started admitting women, stopped being exclusively white, had more public school graduates and became need blind."
The AI was devised and implemented by the Ivy presidents as a "basic, common way of approaching recruiting student-athletes" and a way of providing a "common vocabulary," Orleans said.
Furthermore, the AI attempts to ensure that recruited athletes are up to Ivy League academic snuff.
"My sense was that it was an attempt to level the recruiting playing field so schools were recruiting students that were more representative academically of the student population," said Dean of Admission Jim Miller '73.